Computerized learning systems, sometimes referred to as “tutorial” systems, have been around for many years. The earliest of tutorial systems were designed for mainframe computers. With the advent of personal computers in the mid to late 70's, tutorial systems were increasingly available for home and office personal computer use. With the advent of personal computer networking, the market for network-based learning systems blossomed.
For example, PLATO Learning Systems, currently having a website at the World Wide Web “.com” address of “plato,” began in 1963 with Control Data and University of Illinois using a grant from the National Science Foundation to develop technology and content for a mainframe computer based instructional system. In 1986 with the growth of personal computer technology, the PLATO courseware library and management systems were modified for delivery via local area networks. Starting in the 1990's the PLATO technology became available over wide area networks, such as the public wide area network commonly referred to as the Internet. When delivered over the Internet, courses are sometimes referred to as having “e-learning” content.
While the number of companies offering e-learning content is substantial, there are relatively fewer companies which are active in the business of creating tools for creating and managing e-learning content. SAP, for one, has been active in learning and e-learning technologies for a number of years.
Founded in 1972, SAP is a recognized leader in providing collaborative business solutions for all types of industries. SAP, headquartered in Walldorf Germany, is the world's largest enterprise software company. As such, a major focus of SAP's e-learning programs have been to provide powerful business oriented e-learning solutions to its core corporate customer base. More particularly, SAP provides a series of tools for authoring, managing and delivering e-learning content such that its customers can manage the entirety of the creative and administrative functions for a fully integrated e-learning system.
In FIG. 1, a SAP learning solution system 8 as it is being currently provided includes a master repository 10, a publishing database 12, an authoring environment 14, a curriculum administrator 16, a learning portal 18, and a content player 20. A user (also referred to as a “student” or “learner”) 22 using, for example, a network browser running on a personal computer, can interact with the learning solution system 8.
With the learning solution system 8, the master repository 10 preferably includes all current courses, all previous versions of the courses, and all object independencies with respect to the courses, in one centralized (at least virtually) database. For example, the master repository 10 for a particular course would include all of the objects and dependencies for that course and, perhaps, multiple previous versions such as versions V1, V2, and V3. Therefore, it will be appreciated that the master repository not only includes the current versions of courses, but also previous versions of the courses that are no longer available. That is, the master repository may include many objects, files, and dependencies that are not used in the current selection of courses.
The publishing database 12 includes the currently available courses and a course list. The publishing database 12 is shown to be separate from the master repository 10 in FIG. 1, although it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that they may be only virtually separated from each other. Furthermore, the databases 10 and 12 can be physically supported on the same computer system or on separate computer systems, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art.
The authoring environment 14 is a part of the learning solutions system 8 which supports the creative process of developing new courses. Typically, the authoring environment is implemented on a personal computer system. As such, courses can be authored “off-line”, i.e. without a real time connection to the other components of the learning solutions system 8. That is, a course can be developed on a personal computer hosting the authoring environment 14, and the personal computer can then be integrated with the other components of the learning solution system 8 for such activities as retrieval, check-in, and publishing.
As will be discussed in greater detail subsequently, the authoring environment 14 preferably includes a static dependency checker 24. This static dependency checker is used to help understand the dependencies between the various objects which make up a course. Using the static dependency checker, an author is assisted in determining which of the objects that have been created may be necessary to provide a complete course. This helps in the “packaging” of a course for efficient transmission and storage.
The curriculum administrator 16 allows an administrator to organize and manage a collection of courses. The curriculum administrator can, for example, review course materials and then organize the courses into a course list along with parameters such as availability, cost, prerequisites, etc. As was the case with the authoring environment, the curriculum administrator software may be implemented on a personal computer system which is in at least part-time communication with the publishing database. The personal computer system can be the same computer system used for the authoring environment, or a different computer system.
It should be noted that a rich mix of media can be used with learning solutions system 8. The course can, for example, be a web-based HTML course, but can also include JAVA scripts as well as spreadsheets (e.g. Excel® spreadsheets), presentations (e.g. PowerPoint® presentations), Adobe Acrobat® .pdf files, etc. The courses therefore can be considered to include a number of “objects” which, as is well known to those skilled in the art, can include both executable instructions and data. The instructions and/or data are often arranged in electronic “files.” These files typically “point”, i.e. refer to, other files which may be internal or external to the object in which they reside.
If a file references another file, it is said to have a “file dependency” upon that other file. If the other file in another object, the two objects are said to have an “object dependency.” It is therefore important to provide course having all of such dependencies. If not all dependencies are included with a the set of objects comprising a course, errors are likely to occur as a learner attempts to access a file that is not present with the course.
A learner 22 can access the learning system 8 in a number of fashions. Typically, however, the learner 22 uses a personal computer system provided with web browser software (such as an Internet Explorer® software available from Microsoft Corporation) which is used to access learning portal 18. In that case, the learning portal 18 would operate as a web server to provide HTML documents including a course list, which can be displayed in the web browser window of the learner 22 personal computer. The learner 22 can then select a course from the course list and communicate with content player 20 to retrieve course information from the publishing database 12 and the course itself from the master repository 10. The content player 20 then communicates with the learner 22 to preferably provide an interactive learning session.
As noted previously, it is important that a course include all of the objects which are required to fulfill its dependencies. If not all of such objects are provided, the course will include errors. That is, a user may try to open a particular file and find out that that file is not available because the object in which it resides is not available. In order to address this issue, the SAP learning solution system 8 includes a manual dependency editor 24.
A screen shot 26 which illustrates the functionality of the manual dependency editor 24 can be found in FIG. 2. Screen shot 26 shows a window 28 entitled “Repository Explorer” and an overlying window 30 entitled “Attributes of Object.” As noted, the object test(v-) 32 is selected from the Repository Explorer window 28 such that the Attributes of Object window 30 shows its attributes. That is, on the left side of window 30 it shows that the current dependencies are f/bug/lo_skip/. On the right side of window 30 are other potential dependency candidates, i.e. other objects to which object test(v-) might have a dependency. The author must then manually examine and analyze the dependency candidate to see if it should be added to the current dependency's list by using the “add button” 34. It will be appreciated that this is a cumbersome, time consuming and error prone process.
A process 36 implemented by the manual dependency editor 24 of FIG. 1 is illistrated in greater detail in FIG. 3. The process 36 begins at 38 and, in a operation 40, an object is selected, e.g. the object test(v-). Next, in an operation 42, a candidate list is displayed as illustrated by the right hand side of window 30 of FIG. 2. If the author believes that there is an actual dependency the dependency is added to the current dependency list on the left hand side of window 30 of FIG. 2 by pressing the add button 34. As appreciated by those skilled in the art, by “pressing” it is meant that the “add button” 34 is selected by an on-screen pointer (not shown) as controlled by a pointing device such as a mouse or trackball, and then “pressed” by “clicking” a physical button on the pointing device.
In a decision operation 48 it is determined whether the author is done with manually observing the dependency candidate list in window and 30 and, if not, the operations 42-48 are repeated. If the author is done, it is determined whether other objects, such as object tmp2(v-), shown on the left-hand side of window 28 of FIG. 2, should be checked for dependencies. If the author has not finished analyzing the objects, the operations 40-50 are repeated. If, however, the author is done, the process 36 is completed at 52.
In FIG. 4, the authoring environment 14 is illustrated in greater detail. The authoring environment includes a local repository 54, a repository explorer 56 which includes the static dependency checker 24, an editor 58, a content player 60, and a course viewer 62. The authoring environment 14, as explained with reference to FIG. 1, communicates with the master repository 10 to check-in and retrieve courses, and with publishing database 12 to publish courses.
The creation of the course can either be from scratch, or a template or previous course can be retrieved from the master repository to serve as a starting point. The course being developed is stored locally with the local repository 54 under the control of the repository explorer 56. The editor can view the work in progress by using the content player 60 and the view course 62 functionality. The editor 58 can save work in progress to a local repository 54 by an appropriate command to the repository explorer 56. When the author considers the course to be completed, it can be “check-in” with the master repository 10. However, prior to check-in, it is highly advisable for the author to use the static dependency checker 24 to determine whether all of the required objects have been included with the course. The author then instructs that the course be published to the publishing database 12.
In FIG. 4a, a screenshot 64 will be used to describe the operation of the repository explorer. A window 66 for the repository explorer includes a list, on the left hand side, of the various files and objects in the local work area. On the right hand side of window 66 there is a list of the files and objects in the master repository. It should be noted that while the particular example of FIG. 4a is used to illustrate the use of the repository explorer for the master repository, a very similar if not identical window is available to access the other repositories, such as local repository 54.
As noted, window 66 includes the buttons 68, 70, and 72. The button 68 is used to check-in one or more objects from the local work area to the master repository. The button 70 is used to copy one or more objects in files from the master repository to the local work area (e.g. “retrieve”). The button 72 provides for the transfer of new versions between the local work area and the master repository.
While learning solutions system 8 provides an excellent platform for the development, storage, transfer, management and use of courses and tutorials, it has been found that there are occasions when the static dependency checker alone is a less than ideal solution for insuring all of the required files are included along with the course. As mentioned previously, this can result in certain features of the course being unavailable to the learner. The resulting error messages can be a considerable source of frustration for learners.
In order to reduce the chance for a missing file or object, authors are sometimes over-inclusive in the number of objects that they provide in a course. For example, they may include objects that had been deleted from previous versions or which have been replaced by new objects or files. This presents a problem, however, in the efficient transmission and storage of courses. That is, if a great many additional objects are provided (especially if the additional objects are particularly large), the transmission time and network traffic will increase. Furthermore, if the course is stored on a fixed media, e.g. a CD-ROM or the like, the inclusion of unnecessary objects and files can create a storage capacity problem.
It is therefore desirable to provide a system and methodology to ensure that all of the required objects are provided with the course. It is also desirable not to include objects and files that are not required for the delivery or use of-the course. It is further desirable to provide a system and methodology to optimize the objects of a course for its efficient storage, delivery, and use.